Trump signed an
executive order requiring immigrant families be detained together when they are
caught entering the country illegally for as long as their criminal proceedings
take.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday
backed down and abandoned his policy of separating immigrant children from
their parents on the US-Mexico border, after images of youngsters in cages
sparked outrage at home and abroad.
Trump signed an executive order
requiring immigrant families be detained together when they are caught entering
the country illegally for as long as their criminal proceedings take.
While that may end a policy that drew a
rebuke from Pope Francis and everyone else from human rights advocates to
business leaders, it may also mean immigrant children remain in custody
indefinitely.
Legal challenges
The Trump administration still faces
legal challenges because of a court order that puts a 20-day cap on how long
immigration authorities might detain minors, and trigger fresh criticism of
Trump’s hardline immigration policies, which were central to his 2016 election
campaign and now his presidency.
Administration officials were unable to
clarify whether family separations would end immediately or when and how
families now separated would be reunited.
“It is still very early and we are
awaiting further guidance on the matter,” Brian Marriott, a spokesman for the
Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Children and
Families. “Reunification is always the ultimate goal of those entrusted with
the care of” unaccompanied children and “the administration is working towards
that” for those in custody.
Video footage of children sitting in
cages and an audiotape of wailing children had sparked anger as the images were
broadcast worldwide.
The Trump order, an unusual reversal by
him, moves parents with children to the front of the line for immigration
proceedings but it does not end a 10-week-old “zero tolerance” policy that
calls for prosecution of immigrants crossing the border illegally under the
country’s criminal entry statute.
“It’s about keeping families together
while at the same time making sure that we have a very powerful, very strong
border,” Trump said as he signed the order in a hastily arranged Oval Office
gathering.
Governments from Central America and
Mexico welcomed Trump’s decision on Wednesday, but said they would remain
vigilant to ensure the rights of their citizens were respected.
An avid viewer of cable television
news, Trump recognised that the family separation issue was a growing political
problem, White House sources said.
Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, in private
conversations with the president, urged him to do something to end the
humanitarian crisis, a White House official said.
In the Oval Office, Trump said he had
also heard from his daughter and aide, Ivanka Trump, about the policy.
“Ivanka feels very strongly. My wife
feels very strongly about it. I feel very strongly about it. I think anybody
with a heart would feel very strongly about it,” Trump said.
Wednesday’s move was the most
significant policy reversal by Trump since he took office in January 2017.
Instinctively combative and fond of chaos, Trump usually digs in on
controversial policies, rather than backing down.
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